Argentina Coach Expresses Doubts Over Messi’s International Future

The newly appointed interim coach of the Argentinian senior national team, Lionel Scaloni has expressed doubts on whether star player and team captain Lionel Messi will wear the colours of the two-time world champions again.

Scaloni was speaking about Messi during a press conference on Tuesday.

In his words, he said: “I spoke to him and after that talk, he has not been called up for these games. Honestly, we have not spoken about what will happen in the future.

“We all know what he represents for us and we shall see what happens. I have a good relationship with him, it was a good chat that we had and we were very clear. He will not be in this call-up and in the future, we shall see.”

Lionel Messi was unable to prevent the team from being eliminated in the first knockout stage at the recently concluded FIFA World Cup tournament in Russia and has asked to be excluded from the squad for the upcoming friendlies against Guatemala and Colombia.

Argentina were knocked out in Russia after a 4-3 defeat to eventual winners France in a last 16 World Cup clash.

The World Cup disappointment led to the dismissal of head coach Jorge Sampaoli by the Argentina Football Association (AFA) thus leading to the appointment of interim coaches Lionel Scaloni and Pablo Aimar.

Aside from Messi, veterans like the Manchester City duo of Sergio Aguero and Nicolas Otamendi and Paris Saint-Germain’s Angel Di Maria and Gonzalo Higuain, who is currently on loan at AC Milan, were notable omissions from the squad.

Argentina will face Guatemala on September 7 before facing Colombia four days later.